Weighing-machine.



H. M. B. BABY;

WBIGHING MACHINE.

nuuuxon rum) Barr. :1, 1901.

'Patentd Nov. 3, 1908.

9 BEBBTESHBET 1.

wx -Q-K INVENTOR W1 TNESSES H. M. B. BARY.

WEIGHING MAGHINB.

APPLICATION FILED BEPT.21, 1907.

903,044. Patented Nov. 3, 1903.

2 SHEETS-$112131 2.

Atfomeys INVENTOR HENRY M. B. BABY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

. WBIGHING-MAOHDTE.

Specification 0! Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 8, 1908.

Application filed September 21, 1907. Serial No. 398,929.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, HENRY.M. B. BABY, acitizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county ofPhiladelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in \Veighing-Machines, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention has relation to weighing scales and relates in particularto that class of weighin scales wherein provision is made for refievingthe knife edges and other delicate parts of the weighing mechanism fromthe wei ht of the platform and of the platform an its load at all timesexcept when the actual weighing operation is being performed.

n carryin my present invention into effect I provi e stationary supportsin which the platform rests while inactive and I provide means fordepressing the levers and appurtenant parts of the weighing mechanism atthis time and thereby positively separating them from and holding themout of Contact with the platform and I also provide means for positivelysustaining the free end of the scale beam in an elevated position at thesame time so as to prevent the scale beam from descending and therebyelevating the weighing levers and bringing them into contact with theplatform, and I also provide suitable contact blocks or plates locatedrespectively on the v levers of the weighing mechanism and on theplatform or which under some circumstances may be placed either on thelevers alone or beneath the platform alone to provide eflicient contactpoints when the-platform is being sustained by the weighing mechanismfor weighing purposes.

It is a well established and generally known factthat none of theplatform scales in use are provided with means that would enable one tolift the latform and its lead from its own indepen ent points of supportby means of the scale beam itself in order to connect it with theweighing mechanism and impose it and its load upon the weighing leversknife edges for weighing purposes. Drop levers are in use IOIJZlllS end,

ut this device cannot be employed for scales such as all kinds ofrailroad track and wagon platform scales and, therefore, this device islimited but to small latform scales whose platform and its load can belifted by one or more persons. Now in order to render it uite possiblefor a person to accomplish t is end, and to have any platform scale ofall kinds, types and capacities, from the smallest counter platformscale to and inclusive of the lar est locomotive platform scale toeffect an a solute separation of the platform from the weighing leversat all times, whether the platform is loaded or not, exce ting duringthe operation of actual wei itse f, in my present besides the pro erindependent solid stationary points 0 support for the scale platform andsuitable contact blocks or plates on the Wei hing levers and on thebottom of the plat arm, or on either the levers or the bottom of theplatform alone a suitable loading of any of the weighing levers withreipisite weight that would at once depress su ciently the weighinglevers and thus disconnect and absolutely separate the platform, whetherloaded or not, from the weighing levers and thus impose it upon its own,independent points of solid support, the very moment the scale beam isre lieved from the weight and the counterpoise upon it, said loading ofthe levers being intended to effect and control their rapid descent.

I also provide means whereby, instead of loadin any of the weighinglevers, the requisite ownward pressure is exerted upon said weighinglevers by supplementary devices operative from a point located on theplatform, in' the beam box or its equivalent, in which case, when theweight on the scale beam is being removed therefrom, such devices mustlikewise be adjusted to accomplish a corresponding effect to thatproduced by the removal of the counterpoise from the scale beam aspreviously stated.

I have illustrated my invention in the accompanying drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of a weighing sea econstructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical transversesectional view of the same. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectionalview on an enlarged scale of a portion of the apparatus shown in Figs. 1and 2. Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale ofanother portion of the apparatus shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 5 is aview similar to Fig. 4 of a modification of my invention. Fig. 6 is aview similar to Fig. 5 of another modification.

ing or simply balancing the scale invention I provide,

I have shown my invention as up lied to a well known type of railwaytraeg scales but I wish it to be understood that it is equallyapplicable to other forms of railway track sca es and to suspension,wagon and other forms of platform scales.

The weighing mechanism is arranged in a pit 1, below the platform 2 andincludes the stationar bearings 3 havi bearing blocks 4 upon w ich aremounted t e rock shafts 5, by means of knife edges 6. The rock shafts 5carry main levers 7 which latter are provided with knife ed es 8 and uon the knife edges 8 are mounte contact b ocks 9 which are adapted at acertain relative position of parts to bear against contact blocks 10carried by the platform 2 and at another osition are out of contacttherewith as will be hereinafter described.

The platform 2 is of the usual construction and carries rails 12 alinedwith rails 13 of the railway track, but the platform instead of beinconstantly supported by the weighing mec anism as is usual isindependently supported at all times, except when the actual weighinoperation is being performed upon I earns 14 which latter are mounted infixed position upon abutments 15.

The rock shafts 5 carry in addition to the main levers 7, the arms 16which are connected to the center levers 17 which are in turn connectedto the extension lever 18 which latter is connected with the scale beamby the beam rod 20. The beam rod 20 is connected in the usual manner tothe scale beam 19 which carries the 22 and the counterpoise 23.

The outer or free end of the scale beam, to which the counterpoise isattached passes through the beam rack 24. The beam rack 24 is providedwith a pivoted latch 25. In scales as ordinarily constructed the latchin the beam rack is arranged over the end of the beam, so that when thelatch is in its closed position it will hold the end of the beam in a deressed position that is somewhat below a horizontal line, but in myimprovement the latch is arranged above the end of the beam so that whenthe latch is in its vertical or closed position the end of the beam willbe heldup by the latch so that it will stand at a position somewhatabove a horizontal line, it being understood that the proper weighingposition of the beam is when it is on an exactly horizontal line.

While the counte oise 23 is of the usual construction I make it slightlyheavier than usual as I incorporate into it suflicient additional wei htto counter balance a weight 26 with whic the extension lever 18 isloaded, the purpose of the loading of the extension iever being to doress this iever positively and, by reason 0 its connection with the mainlevers of the weighing mechanism, to

depress the main levers and separate the sliding weights contact blockson the main levers from the contact blocks on the platform when thesliding weight is at zero and the beam has been elevated by means of thelatch in the beam rack.

The 0 eration of the a paratus as above described isas follows: hen inits inactive position, that is when the weighing operation is not beinperformed, the latch 25 is in the osition s own in full lines in Fig. 4,and ho ds the-free end of the scale beam up so that the scale beam isinclined upwardly from its pivoted point or fulcrum to its free end. 'Atthis position of the scale beam the wei ht 26 acting on the extensionlever 18 1101 s the latter down and the main levers will also behelddown so that the contact blocks 9 carried by the main levers will beout of contact with the contact blocks 10 carried by the platform. Atthis position of parts the platform 2 rests on its stationary supports,that is, upon the I beams 14 and cars may be run on, off or over theplatform without in any manner affecting the wei hing'mechanism. When itis desired to weig any object, say for instance a car, it is run uponthe platform and allowed to come to rest thereon. The latch 25 is nowturned to a horizontal position thus freeing the end of the scale beamwhich at once drops to a position sli htly above a horizontal position,the a ditional weight incorporated in the counterpoise overcomin theweight added to the extension lever and this preliminary movement of thescale beam therefore causing the main levers to be elevated so as tobring the contact blocks on the main levers into contact with thecontact blocks on the latform. The slidin wei ht is now mOVBPl along thebeam untfi it dbpresses the beam to a horizontal position, this deression of the beam having the eflect of be ily raising the platform andits load, and the weight of the platform and its load being nowsustained wholly b the weighin mechanism. When the scale beam has reaced the horizontal position the arts are in flflllllbl'lllm and theweight 0 the car or ot er load is ascertained -by examining the scale onthe beam. After the weighing has been accomplished the sliding wei ht onthe scale beam is run back to zero t us permitting the scale beam torise slightly and this movement permitting the platform to descend untilit rests upon its stationary supports. The latch 25 is now turned u to avertical position thus raisin the end of the scale beam and allowing t eweight on the extension lever to depress the same and this depression ofthe extension lever efiecting a simultaneous depression of the mainlevers and their contact blocks so as to separate the latter from thecontact blocks on'the platform. As the platform is now wholly out ofcontact with the weighing mechanism the car can now be run off withoutimposing any jar, shock, wear or movement to any part of the weighingmechanism. While I ave shown the counterpoise at the outer or free endof the scale beam it is to be understood that my improvement is equallyapplicable to beam scales of other constructions.

While the above described construction is the preferable one and is thesimplest and most economical manner of accomplishing the desired result,I have devised modified forms of my invention and have illustrated thesame in Figs. 5 andfi.

In the construction shown in these figures I dispense with the latchbeneath the end of the scale beam and also dispense with the additionalweight which in the previous construction I incorporated with thecounteroise and in lieu thereof I provide means or positively depressingthe extension lever such means as shown in Fig. 5 consisting of a rod 26which is mounted at any convenient point on the platform the beam box orits equivalent, and bears at its end upon top of the extension lever andwhich carries a cam 27 that bears against a stationary cam 28, the rod26 also carrying a handle 29 by means of which it can be rotated and therotation of the rod serving, by the action of the cams, to raise orlower it accordingly as the handle is turned in one direction or theother and thereby depress the extension lever or permit it to rise asthe case may be, this raising or lowering of the lever having the sameeffect as the raising and lowering of the same by means shown in Figs. 1and 2.

In Fig. 6 I have shown the rod 26 connected to a plunger 27 containedwithin a cylinder 28' which is provided with an inlet pipe 29 and anexhaust pipe 30 by means of which any suitable fluid under pressure canbe admitted to and exhausted from the cylinder so as to raise and lowerthe plunger and thereby cause the rod 26 to depress the extension leveror permit the same to rise and affect the action described in referringto Fig. 5.

While I have described the levers of the weighing mechanism and theplatform as being both provided with contact blocks, I wish it to beunderstood that under some conditions, as hereinbefore stated contactblocks may be placed either on the levers alone or on the platformalone.

I claim: a

1; In weighing scales the combination of a load an porting member andstationary supports t erefor, with a. weighingbmember supported on knifeedges, contact looks or plates interposed between and carried by one ofsaid members and pivotally connected thereto and normally out of contactwith the opposing member, a. scale beam and connections between thescale beam and the weighing member for bringing said contact glock intocontact with the opposing mem- 2. In a platform weighing scale, thecombination of loaded weighing levers, a scale beam, 9. platform,independent supports for the platform, means for bringing said loadedweighing levers into and out of operative relation to the platform,contact blocks or plates carried by the platform and contact blocks orplates carried by the weighing levers.

3. In a platform weighing scale, the combination of a platform,stationary su ports for the platform, weighing levers a apted to bemoved into and out of operative relation to the platform, means forexerting a downward pressure on the wei hing levers operable from abovethe top of t e platform, contact blocks or plates located respectivelyon the weighing levers and on the bottom of the platform.

4. In weighing scales, the combination of a load supporting member'andstationary su ports therefor with a weighing member ans contact blocksor plates interposed between and carried by one of said members a scalebeam connected to the weighing memher, and means for neutralizin theoperations of the scale beam when t e load supporting member rests onits supports.

5. In weighing scales, the combination with the platform and stationarysupports for the same, of weighing mechanism adapted to be brought intoand out of operative relation to the latform, a scale beam connected tosaid weighing mechanism and adapted by its movement to bring theweighing mechanism into and out of operative relation -to the platformand means for sustaining the free end of the scale beam in elevatedposition when the platform rests upon its stationary su ports. v

6. In weighing sea es, the combination with the platform and stationarsupports for the same, of weighing mec anism 1ncluding a scale beamadapted to be broil ht into and out of operative relation to the patform, said scale beam constituting the me-

